1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved collar lancet device which not only functions effectively to pierce a patient's skin for blood sampling, but also provides for the substantially protected removal of the contaminated lancet piercing tip in such a manner as to prevent medical personnel or any other person using it from accidentally contacting a contaminated lancet tip during disposal thereof, and to further prevent the accidental reuse of a contaminated lancet tip.
2. Description of the Related Art
Lancet devices are frequently used instruments by both medical personnel and individuals in their own homes. Specifically, lancet devices are primarily adapted for facilitating the pricking of a finger or another portion of a patient, such as the ear lobe, to initiate a small amount of a blood sample for testing. As such, these devices are commonly used in hospitals and doctor's offices where blood tests are a frequent occurrence, as well as individually by some patients who must continuously administer medication such as insulin, to themselves and must repeatedly sample blood themselves.
A common and extremely dangerous hazard associated with the use of these types of lancet devices, especially given the advent of highly contagious and deadly, blood-transferred diseases such as the HIV Virus which causes AIDS or Acquired Immune-Deficiency Syndrome, relates to the ineffective and/or the inappropriate disposal of a contaminated lancet tip. Presently, most reusable lancet devices call for a small disposal tip portion to be inserted therein for subsequent firing to prick the patient's skin. Even these disposable tips however, while allowing a majority of the overall device to be re-used and disposal of only the contaminated portions, provide a significant hazard because they require the user to open the device and remove the used, contaminated tip from its secured position within the device. Simply put, accidents often still occur with these devices because the user generally attempts to recap the contaminated lancet tip and remove it from the device, and then dispose of it, both of which activities are hazardous. Specifically, although the lancet tip is sheathed for initial insertion into the lancet device, after use, a person must remove the used tip from the device, generally by gripping the lancet at or substantially near the contaminated pricking end. Next, if the user wishes to resheath the tip in the previously removed cover, precise and often substantially difficult maneuvering and placement must be implemented to ensure that the pricking end is not accidently mis-inserted or does not appropriately enter the sheathed cover, but rather pricks the finger of the person holding the sheathed cover. Such serious hazard associated with conventional disposal lancet tips, have thus lead to the production and development of single use lancet devices which are intended to be structured for allowing only a single prick of a finger, after which the entire device is disposed of, with the pricking tip maintained in a concealed location within the device. Such devices, however, can over time lead to a substantially increased expense, especially in hospital situations wherein a substantial number of blood samplings must be performed. Accordingly, there is a substantial need in the art for a device which will be substantially reusable, yet will provide for the safe and effective use and disposal of the lancet tip by removing the hazards associated with removal of a used tip from the reusable device.
The devices disclosed in the patents to Brown et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,990,154 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,074,872) have attempted to somewhat minimize the dangers involved with disposal of a contaminated lancet tip. As such, the lancet devices of Brown disclose a removable cap assembly which contains the lancet tip sheath therein. This device, while maintaining the lancet tip sheathed therein before and after use, does not eliminate the risk associated with accidental reuse. Specifically, the devices of Brown et al. incorporate a cap portion which holds the lancet tip therein in a retracted position. This device, when connected with the lancet body is structured such that during use a cocked hammer impacts a base of the lancet tip, momentarily urging it from the enclosed cap, and after firing, the tip is retracted back into the cap. At that point, however, the device of Brown et al. can easily be reused merely by recocking the hammer and firing it once again. Accordingly, if the lancet assembly of Brown is misplaced after use, a further user who does not know or recall that the assembly has already been contaminated can maneuver the assembly to cock the lancet once again for further firing of the hammer and for a dangerous re-use of a contaminated lancet tip. There is therefore a substantial need in the art for a lancet device which will not only completely conceal and contain a contaminated lancet tip after use and during disposal, but which will also eliminate the possibility that a contaminated lancet tip will be accidentally or intentionally reused. The device of the present invention is designed specifically to overcome these problems and does in fact function to ensure that a lancet tip is utilized only one time to prick the skin of a patient.